Control systems provide electronic control of home or office devices, such as lighting and distributed audio systems. Most existing systems include a central processing unit. Dependence on a central processing unit creates a single point of failure. Because control is not localized, the network becomes another single point of failure. For example, if there is a switch that controls lights in a room, and there is a network failure between the switch and the central processing unit, the switch can no longer control the lights in the room.
All devices being controlled are wired back to the central processing unit. For example, in an electronically controlled building, each lighting circuit must have its own electrical wiring all the way back to the dimming module. This creates a large increase in the amount and complexity of the electrical wiring in a building. Because of the cost and complexity of the wiring, most implementations are wired so that related fixtures are all wired together on one lighting circuit. This leaves little room for flexibility in the system once it is fully installed.
It would be desirable to develop a control system that does not rely on a central processing unit and in which devices are locally controlled, both logically and physically.